Organizing your winter accessories: A contest
Winter is finally officially here and I've started wearing hats and scarves on a daily basis, but until yesterday I was wearing just one or two pieces repeatedly because all the rest hadn't been pulled out from storage yet. Yesterday, I pulled everything out.
What you see above is the mess I ended up with.
I assume all knitters have a huge stash of winter accessories like this but I'm betting most of you are way more organized than I am.
So I need your help!
If you have an answer to this question:
How do you organize winter accessories so that you'll actually wear them?
I'd love to hear it!
To make this more fun for you guys, I've decided to run a contest to get more answers. And of course every contest needs a prize, right?
The Prize
Here's what's up for grabs:
A Lantern Moon woven bag in a lovely shade of green, filled with the following:
- One Loreley Scarf Kit in your choice of color
- One iKnit iPad Cover Kit in your color choice
- A subscription to the Chiagu Collection 2012, meaning every single pattern I release in 2012
How to Enter
Answer the question "How do you organize winter accessories so that you'll actually wear them?" Your answer can be written out, or can be a link to an article in a magazine, or a picture of your storage solution. It's up to you!
Send in your answer in one of these ways:
- In a comment on this post
- In a wall post on the Chiagu Facebook page (you probably want to "like" it while you're there too!)
- In a Tweet that includes the hashtag #chiagu
- In a Ravelry forum post of your choosing, magic linked to my designer page on Ravelry
- In a blog post on your own blog, with a link back to this blog post
If you want to do more than one of the above, go right ahead! More entries of course mean a greater chance of winning!
Please note that only one entry per venue per person will count towards the prize (meaning if you tweet 7 times, that counts as 1 entry. So don't spam your friends!).
How to Win
A winner will be chosen at random from all the entries received by the end of the contest.
The contest runs for one week, through Tuesday, December 20th, 2011, at midnight in NYC.
On Wednesday, December 21st, I'll pick an entry at random and email the winner to get his/her prizes out. I'll also be aggregating the suggestions and putting them on chiagu.com in a resource page with all the tips, with attributions to you.
Have questions?
Leave them in the comments and I'll get back to you asap.
Good luck on the contest! My accessories thank you in advance for all your help ;o)
25 Responses
Barb
How do I organize? I have a pile. In my closet. I pull out what I want and then slap it on top….I tried the space saver bags…great for summer storage, but I found I didn’t wear anything if I left stuff in the bag during the winter.
Jill B.
I can’t say that I am very organized. I really just have a pile of shawls in my closet, sometimes just draped over the top of the (full) hangers. In the past, I’ve put them in storage bins under the bed, but I never open those up and it became a waste. I like the idea of using hanging shelving in my closet. Something like this: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/closet/newClosetStorageCollections/como?productId=10031157&N=80600
I use one for sweaters, but a shoe size one would be a nice size for shawls and accessories. And they’ll be on view in your closet and more likely to be worn. I don’t know if that’s helpful at all!
Jacquelyn
I have a dress form that I bought on-line and I layer her with my favorite cardigans, hats and scarves. I
lay mitts and fingerless gloves on her shoulders. So when I get dressed I see all my choices! Man, that’s
one warm dress form! Thank you for posting a very useful question too!
Laura
Move to Texas, where you won’t need those things. ;)
No, seriously. . . would a tie rack work for the scarves?
Anne Clark
I have a separate dresser for all of my knitwear that I’ve made. Sweaters, shawls, accessories, etc… What I do is take a picture of each item on my dresser and write down any pertinent details of each item. I use this great program called Evernote, it’s free online, and I use that to make a psuedo-spreadsheet of the items in each dresser drawer, including the pictures I took. I make one for each drawer and then print it out and tape it to the outside of the drawer. At a glance I know everything that’s in there. And everything stays neatly folded inside. It works great! You could do the same thing with storage boxes, shelves in the closet, all kinds of different things. Hope this helps!
Karen B
#10086; I love the pixie stix colors for the scarf! #10086; I have a basket by the entryway for all of the winter accessories like hats, gloves and scarves. For my boys it, seems to work out the best as of right now, since we don’t have a closet or hanging hooks for that kind of stuff in this rental house. I keep my own scarf on the hanger with my coat in my bedroom closet.
Mary Beth
I am lucky enough to have a spare room as my craft room. The closet has my clothes and my coats in it. On the back of the closet door and the door to the hallway i have multiple hooks and one also mounted on the wall behind the door. I try to scarves are hanging on hooks with coordinating hats and mitts rolled up on top. This way I can get my coat and whichever set i want to show off!!!
Carmen
I don’t have nearly as many as you, but the ones I do have, I mainly store in a hanging shoe holder (the over-the-door kind with small pockets).
Suzanne Shattuck
I keep my scarf hanging around my coat on the hanger and my gloves in my coat pockets. Very simple, I know, but I never have to go looking for them.
ikkinlala
I don’t have nearly that many, but I hang scarves on coat pegs and put hats and mittens in a basket near the door.
Anne Marie
I have the most trouble with all my kids’ stuff. I do EXACTLY what reply #1 suggested — a three-drawer plastic cart. I have a blue one for the boys and pink for the girls. Hats in the top drawer since they go on the top of your head; scarves in the second drawer since that’s just below the head; and mittens and gloves in the bottom since they are lower down on the bottom. Hats — scarves — mittens. At least 5 out of the 7 can get the concept and it seems to work!
First Wholesale Customer! — Chiagu
[…] – Don’t forget to enter my contest, there’s only a day left! I’ve gotten fewer than 100 entries so your chances of winning […]
Annie Driscoll
I use three or four good size baskets, grouped together in my entry way. I have two winter coats in different colors, so I sort the accessories into coordinating colors in separate baskets. It works well. I can just reach into the right color basket—which gives me some variety, too.
I would totally love to win this prize—i just love your patterns and kits!
quinn
I haven’t accumulated a lot of accessories – nothing like your colorful collection! I have a wooden accordian-type rack fastened to the wall by my back door; scarves and mittens are draped over the wooden rods, hats hang from wooden pegs at the back. Works pretty well!
quinn
Forgot to say – I’m quinn on rav :)
Thanks for having such a great giveaway!
Zilliah
I have a scarf hanger: http://www.amazon.com/Richards-Homewares-10-Hole-Scarf-Hanger/dp/B0000TQF28 which I use for my scarves, and I have a drawer where I keep everything else. I usually keep the things I’m currently using out on the top of my dresser, and switch them up every so often.
Karen aka purplepenguin on Ravelry
My sweaters are in my dresser. Other accessories are stored a bit differently. One year, we got really large tube containers of cookies (my brother worked for a cookie company). I use one to hold scarves, the other to hold hats and gloves. Anytime someone needs a hat, gloves or scarves, they are available. In the off season, they stack and go in the basement.
TangledKnits
I use wicker baskets in my front hallway closet. I have 3 – one for hats, one for mittens and one for scarves but my favourite scarves are always hanging on a hanger with a clothes pin attached to the top to ensure it stays on and doesn’t slide off! It works for us! :) Good luck figuring something out and thanks for such an amazing giveaway! :)
patsy coats
I only have a few that I wear. My mittens and scarves are in a clear shoe box is my closet. My shawl in on my chair in the living room. and my poncho is usually on me.
MaryAnne Williams
I have one of those over the door pocket organizers – it holds lots of hats, scarves and gloves, and because it’s clear, I can see everything.
sara
I use a rings like the ones you hang a shower curtain on – on a rod on my wall – and and pull the scarves through – the hats I hang on a board with hooks…(the kind you can buy at wal-mart…
nhsarab at yahoo dot com
nhsarab on ravelry
Mujercita
I have the same problem with organization right now, but I’m moving on Saturday to an apartment with a nice big coat closet. I’m going to put my shoe-rack in there so that my every-day shoes are easily at hand on my way out the door. I’m also going to put a basket in there for cowls, hats, gloves, mittens, etc. I picked up some nice non-slip hangers (they’re covered with something velvety-feeling, so stuff actually stays on them), and I’m going to hang my shawls and scarves on those. Coats will also, of course, go in this closet.
My goal with the new apartment is to keep everything nice and organized- we’ll see how long that lasts!
Kenyetta
I hate to say it, but mine are in a bag. The one’s we wear often, we keep downstairs on the bookshelf in the living room.
InJuneau
The items in highest use (hats, gloves, my cowl) are usually in the pockets of our most worn coats, so it’s easy to find them. Scarves get draped over the hooks our coats hang on in the hallway/stair space between the living room and the master bedroom. However, there is a big mysterious box full of all the other accessories in the arctic entry closet which really needs an organizational effort. I think my missing scarf from my SIL may be in there somewhere. Also, we live in a cool to cold climate, so not all the accessories are solely winter ones. Hats and gloves are worm for many months here, esp. when we’re out hiking or taking photos.
(InJuneau on Ravelry too)
Amberlee Batchelor
December 20, 2011
I have 3 children who love their handknits and will ask me to make them more. When it comes to trying to organize them it can be difficult. My daughter loves hats and collects them. She sees a hat she wants me to make and I will. Unfortunately they end up on the floor in a pile, which neither of us liked. We took clothesline—nice sturdy and fairly thick—and put it around the room near the top. Then we added clips to hang her hats from. Works great! My one son likes all his things to have a spot in a drawer so we bought those dividers from Ikea and he uses those for hats, handwarmers, gloves, mittens and scarves. My eldest likes to wear what he has or leave it on his chair, we are still working on that. :) As for my husband and I… well he puts his gloves and hat in his coat pocket so he won’t forget them everyday. His handknit Dr. Who scarf has a hanger of it’s own. Mine handknits are stored in a couple different ways. I like to keep my shawls or things I would wear out with outfits I would wear them with. My hats have a spot in my dresser along with my handwarmers and scarves. It can be difficult to keep everyone organized, but we try to find ways that work for each of us! :)